16-Inch M3 Max MacBook Pro Now Costs $7,200 With All Upgrades

[bluecoast]

These are not aimed at modest consumers these are pro machines. The definition of pro being of course people who make money from it. This is cheap for pro equipment. You even compared it to sgi machines plenty of ‘pros’ (businesses which use them to make money) bought them too.

I think you want to look at macbook air.

Yeah this is the harsh truth - most people who want a MacBook Pro will be better off with a MacBook Air.

And the vast majority of people on this forum will be fine with the base level m3 MBP (with 16GB memory), even though I’ll probably get flamed for saying this.

It’s not enough SSD, because you need to keep all your photos, downloaded music, movies and tv shows, locally?

Ok, but be aware that you’re an outlier in today’s world of streaming & cloud storage and you’re going to pay a lot for your niche case habit.

 

[schalliol]

The memory configs are in interesting multiples.

For example, you can’t get most configs with the base Max chip. Here are the options for both Max chips. Does anyone know if there are hardware reasons these RAM versions are what they are or if it’s Apple’s desire not to have infinite choice.

I’d like 64 GB, but that’s only on the top chip. However, you could get 96 on the base Max chip. I predict not many will get the base Max chip with 96.

 

[centauratlas]

Its

C’mom its 8TB of SSD for that price.

Not so insane.

they need to offer a 12 and 16 TB option for the M4 machines.

 

[anakin44011]

If you constantly do FCP projects on internal drive, yes, you got the point. But even then, carrying constantly around terabytes of data (unless backed up, let me guess, on a portable drive or NAS system), is inherently risky due to possibility of losing the computer itself, breaking SSD (which rarely but happens), file corruption, risk of breaking the notebook itself etc. If your work is in video, then even 4TB or 8TB might be not enough, which again leads to need for a portable storage but anyway YMMV

Yeah...backed up on multiple SSDs, then again on HD...twice (home & office).

 

[return2sendai]

I need to befriend a PC user in the States who can enter one of those annoying MacRumors giveaways on my behalf. Any takers? Wrong forum I guess.

 

[ohthehorror]

Apple meet shark. Jump!!!

 

[spnc]

They have the M4 M5 and M6 already in various stages of completion. They likely plan to release a system based on the M4 in 12-18 months.

Absolutely. Better wait for anyone not in a rush tbh. Those will come with FaceID and WiFi 7 too. And hopefully multi monitor support too!

 

[spnc]

If you constantly do FCP projects on internal drive, yes, you got the point. But even then, carrying constantly around terabytes of data (unless backed up, let me guess, on a portable drive or NAS system), is inherently risky due to possibility of losing the computer itself, breaking SSD (which rarely but happens), file corruption, risk of breaking the notebook itself etc. If your work is in video, then even 4TB or 8TB might be not enough, which again leads to need for a portable storage but anyway YMMV

No one ever broke internal SSD on a rock solid MBP lol... these would only occur on non-Apple drives back in mechanical drive days, and even so with external SSDs, I doubt anything bad would happen with a rock solid product like SanDisk. Never had any issue with both brands.

Anyway that's not the point, the point is convenience, and having all you data locally is just so much more convenient (and time saving).

 

[Boeingfan]

128gb is paltry. For seven grand it would want to have a terabyte at least.

 

[spnc]

Taking Germany as the largest European market:
€8529 / 1.19 * ($1.0607 / €1) / $7199 = 105.6%

So yeah, net of VAT, it’s 5.6% more expensive in Germany than the U.S.

Much less than I expected. I remember it used to be about 10% „Euro surcharge“ with Apple for years. Not sure though if they’re just looking out for inflation-plagued Europeans, or if it‘s due to a cap (?) in copyright, recycling and other fees on these high-end notebooks.

Keep in mind that there’s a 2-year statutory warranty in Europe as well.

It's indeed frustrating. I don't believe it's solely related to EU fees, as you mentioned. When I lived in Switzerland, where the VAT rate is only 8%, prices were somewhat lower than the EU but still much higher than in the US (and usually, Switzerland tech products prices are significantly lower than EU tech products prices, due to lower VAT). So it's disappointing that we're charged more by the Yankees just because we live in EU.

Isn't the 2-year warranty pointless if we're going to have to purchase AppleCare+ for 3 to 5 years anyway?

 

[spnc]

In Europe there are laws brewing that will force companies like Apple to make their devices more repairable and user upgradable to try to increase their useful life and reduce e-waste. The likely effect of this legislation will be that things such as RAM and SSD will have to be socketed. Maybe even the processor. There are downsides to this but one upside is that it will prevent this sort of crazy pricing by allowing users to upgrade using third party products, improving competition. Wonder what Apple will do? Dramatically increase the base price?

Interesting, thanks.

At this rate the M4 with full options might reach 10'000 eur. The price of a small car in most countries

But I barely drive, so who cares haha

 

[lowkey]

Anyone seen a breakdown of Efficiency vs Performance cores of all the M3/Pro/Max options?

In case anyone else is interested...

M3 8 Core 4P 4E
M3 Pro 11 Core 5P 6E [my guess]
M3 Pro 12 Core 6P 6E
M3 Max 14 Core 10P 4E [my guess]
M3 Max 16 Core 12P 4E [according to the Verge]

If thats correct, then I'd say the M3 Pro chip is pretty disappointing. My M1 Pro has 8P 4E which i think is a much better balance given people are buying the Pro chip because the need more power than the bas M3.

But its a big step up from the M3 Pro to the M3 Max. Before the only reason to upgrade from the Pro to the Max chip was if you needed the additional GPU cores. Now the P cores in the Mx chip are double the Pro chips. But upgrade to get the extra 2 P cores you also need to pay for a RAM upgrade and the extra 10 GPU cores, so it gets insanely expensive to spec the 16 core Max chip here in Australia.

$6,349 for the 14" MBP with 16 core Max CPU
$6,899 for the 16" MBP with 16 core Max CPU

btw the maxed out 16" MBP here is $11,699 :lol:

Not sure any of that is going to boost lagging sales in the current economic climate...

 

[MayaUser]

In case anyone else is interested...

M3 8 Core 4P 4E
M3 Pro 11 Core 5P 6E [my guess]
M3 Pro 12 Core 6P 6E
M3 Max 14 Core 10P 4E [my guess]
M3 Max 16 Core 12P 4E [according to the Verge]

If thats correct, then I'd say the M3 Pro chip is pretty disappointing. My M1 Pro has 8P 4E which i think is a much better balance given people are buying the Pro chip because the need more power than the bas M3.

But its a big step up from the M3 Pro to the M3 Max. Before the only reason to upgrade from the Pro to the Max chip was if you needed the additional GPU cores. Now the P cores in the Mx chip are double the Pro chips. But upgrade to get the extra 2 P cores you also need to pay for a RAM upgrade and the extra 10 GPU cores, so it gets insanely expensive to spec the 16 core Max chip here in Australia.

$6,349 for the 14" MBP with 16 core Max CPU
$6,899 for the 16" MBP with 16 core Max CPU

btw the maxed out 16" MBP here is $11,699 :lol:

Not sure any of that is going to boost lagging sales in the current economic climate...

In the past Apple made the mistake to place the M on cpu side around the same...M1 Pro was to close to the M1 Max...now they are in a different class both in cpu and gpu. But because Apple made that mistake, now, all 3 are more different between them, but the price remain the same(or a little bit more expensive) compared to last year. M3 Pro should get $200 cheaper instead of making the full M3 Max expensive since you make the statement that the Mbp will reach more types of users (that includes more type of budgets) because the M3 Pro will perform around the same as M2 Pro if you are not using Mesh or Ray Tracing and M3 pro has lower bandwidth compared to the M2 Pro

 

[Amishpriest]

Time to take out that 2nd mortgage! 🤣

 

[falkon-engine]

Scary prices

 

[mocuishe]

All you say dont matter. These macs are already too powerfull for 90% of apple users. Most of users use Fb and YT and web browsing on these so yeah go figure. And until morons like Ijustine run the show all you say about pricing or configuration dont matter for 90% of apple users. And dont forget that apple users are so heavily invested mentally and financialy into apple eco system that they will buy these even if they cost 3 times as much. Apple knows that and charges accordingly to mind share. Enjoy ur new apple tat.

 

[djphat2000]

In Europe there are laws brewing that will force companies like Apple to make their devices more repairable and user upgradable to try to increase their useful life and reduce e-waste. The likely effect of this legislation will be that things such as RAM and SSD will have to be socketed. Maybe even the processor. There are downsides to this but one upside is that it will prevent this sort of crazy pricing by allowing users to upgrade using third party products, improving competition. Wonder what Apple will do? Dramatically increase the base price?

Making it illegal to build a SOC so a super minority of users can repair and or build their own computer. Makes even less sense to me than the current gatekeeper laws they passed. So it's entirely possible they do this.

 

[tridley68]

They can keep it I can purchase a very nice Windows machine and have money in the bank. 😆

 

[Will Co]

Making it illegal to build a SOC so a super minority of users can repair and or build their own computer. Makes even less sense to me than the current gatekeeper laws they passed. So it's entirely possible they do this.

That's not what I said. I didn't say that the proposed laws would make it illegal to build or use a SoC.

 

[Omega Mac]

That’s insane!

No, you are wrong, the Euro stores € price converted to $'s is insane

€9,159

 

[Stella]

The prices for more ssd are just insane....

Apple have always charged insane prices for both storage and RAM upgrades.

Back when you could replace RAM and storage yourself, it was cheaper to buy a lower end machine and upgrade both yourself to equally as good components.

 

[webkit]

btw the maxed out 16" MBP here is $11,699 :lol:

Yes, but that includes GST. Excluding GST and converting to USD puts the price at around $6,740 USD which is actually lower than the $7,199 U.S. pre-sales tax price.

 

[webkit]

No, you are wrong, the Euro stores € price converted to $'s is insane

€9,159

Keep in mind that prices in Europe include VAT while U.S. prices do not include sales tax.

As someone else posted, the price in Germany excluding VAT is around $7,600 USD at the current exchange rate which is 5.6% higher than the pre-sales tax U.S. price. The EU Macs also include a 2 year warranty compared to 1 year in U.S.

 

[macaddiict]

Dropbox, unlike any other cloud services, actually works fantastic even with large files.

iCloud uses a similar file chunking method these days, doesn't it? I switched from DropBox to iCloud a few years ago when Dropbox went to their weird interface.

 

[Onelifenofear]

They can keep it I can purchase a very nice Windows machine and have money in the bank. 😆

With little resale value. Off you go then, Widoze is horrible.

No thank you!

At this point getting a MacBook Pro seems pointless unless I had the money to burn and/or I really really really needed to run a specific exclusive program. Otherwise the money is best put towards building a PC. If I ever get a Mac again it’ll need to be an Air but even that I am struggling to justify.

Good job lugging that PC build around with you.


Some points:
What a lot of people never get with expensive pro machines is the price goes up the less they will sell. You can buy a Dell workstation for… wait for it… $292,000!!! I started my career on a Graphics Workstation that cost $400,000 in about 1995. Today an iPhone is 1000x faster.

People are shocked at the price of pro machines. WHAT! 7K on a laptop? A Mac Pro is 14k!!!? Yet they don‘t bat an eyelid when an electrician or builder buys are truck / van for 30k let all the price of their tools?

People spending 7.2K on a laptop are Pro animators / editors etc. I bought a Mac Pro in 2020 for £12K ( + 2 k on non apple RAM ) and it was a paid for by one job in about 2 weeks. I expect to keep using that for another 2-3 years.

It’s completely Tax deductible ( over 3 years in the UK ) Meaning it’s basically free. We buy kit or give it to the government as tax.

With the M3 the GPU has access to 128GB!!! That’s more than even any desktop GPU by a factor. The Nvidia 4090 has 24Gb. If you don’t know why that‘s a big deal.. then you probably don’t need to know.

I am pretty sure the Base model of the Macbook Pro is now faster than my Mac Pro 2019 With dual Vega2 GPUs. But I do have 768Gb Ram at least.